On 18 September 2026, Archives of Disease in Childhood (BMJ) published Dr. Richard Santen’s paper Intellectual conflicts of interest and the ongoing controversy on guidelines regarding gender-affirming care. “Gender-affirming care” is the paper’s phrase; here it means puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones — sex-rejecting procedures — for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria. Santen, of the University of Virginia School of Medicine and a past president of the Endocrine Society, says a weak evidence base has been filled by conflicted expert opinion: 9 of 10 authors of the Endocrine Society’s 2017 guideline oversaw or worked in gender-dysphoria clinics, and 117 of 121 authors of WPATH’s Standards of Care 8 took part in those programmes.
Read the paper.
- bmj
- research